hat

Definitions

General English

Cricket

noun a hat trick

Citation ‘Bates, the Yorkshireman, had just dismissed two of their best bats, McDonnell and Giffen, in two consecutive balls … Somebody suggested that, in the faint hope of securing a “hat” for Bates, we should try a silly mid-on’ (Badminton 1888)

Slang

noun a condom. Jim(my)-hat is an alternative form.

Origin & History of “hat”

Hat and hood are ultimately the sameword, and denote literally ‘head-covering’. both go back to Indo-European *kadh- ‘cover, protect’, which in the case of hat produced a Germanic derivative *khadnús, later *khattus. this was the source of Englishhat, and also of Swedish hatt and Danish hat (German hutt and Dutch hoed ‘hat’ are more closely related to English hood).